tommyiscooldotcom

Hello

I haven't really posted much on the IR reforms because it took me a while to, well... care about them. I might long for the obliteration of the Howard Government, and I might have had a man-crush on Latham, but I've never really cared about the workers like a good comrade should.

I didn't have anything else to do this week (or this year), so I thought I'd try and figure out where I stood. That way, when I watch the news, I would know which politician to yell at. So, I looked at my extensive employment and political history. It took me twenty seconds.

I've been on an AWA before and had no complaints, even managed to get myself a few pay rises. At the same time, I saw an old Leb chick at my work get screwed over by a 'trainee wage' clause in her AWA, and get paid below-wage for a few months.

I supported VSU when I was at uni because it meant less money to the Young Libs and Young Labor tossers who thought running a student council that gets 4% voter participation was the most important thing in the known universe.

I've never been a member of a union, nor would I join one unless it was in my best interests. I don't know anybody in a union, and my dad doesn't have a moustache, so I'm pretty sure he's not a communist.

So, with no answers in my personal experience, I did what any uni grad does when they need an opinion.


I remembered something I'd learnt in a second-year politics course.

This isn't what I learnt, though it would have been an
easier way to get a distinction

In the course, we spent a few weeks learning about Foundation and the political climate at the time. Fascinating stuff, but I remember it especially well because of my lecturer. It was just as Latham-Mania was running wild in 2004, when he was polling really well and when my wet dreams of him were really vivid. Anyway, the lecturer said Latham would be 'gone by Christmas'. I laughed at the old fool, because I was sure Prime Minister Latham was a certainty, but sure enough, on Boxing Day that year, the Tsunami hits and kills Latham dead in the water. What a horrible choice of words. Dead Indonesian babies.

Anyway, this all has a point. Aside from debating things like the length of pantaloons and the speed limits for those crazy bikes with one big wheel and one small one, our first politicians, our founding fathers if you will, created an industrial relations system that has survived in some form or another for over a century.

Look Phillip, that man has a bicycle coming out of his arse

It was a compromise between the workers and their bosses, between the regular joes and the owners of the factories that made the crazy bikes with one big wheel and one small one. They set up a wage arbitration body, to regulate pay. They introduced the concept of awards, which exist to this day. But above all, this system recognised the equality between bosses and workers. It's a goofy catchphrase these days, but this system was 'a fair go' for both sides. And it was pretty innovative stuff too, considering the rest of the world treated the working class like two-legged cattle that produced money from their sexy, voluptuous teats rather than milk.

It might sound boring as batshit, and I'll probably regret writing a blog about it when '0 Comments' stares me in the face for the next few days, but it's something to think about the next time you hear about someone getting denied a job because they didn't want to sign away their sick leave or their overtime.